Nearly One in Five Teens Is Overweight

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- According to a recent Gallup Youth study, 18% of U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 describe themselves as overweight. That figure is quite close to the 16% of adolescents aged 12 to 19 found to be overweight in the 1999 to 2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Most weight counseling focuses on eating too much of the wrong foods and not getting enough exercise as the primary contributors to excess weight. Gallup tested these factors by asking teens to describe how frequently they eat and buy junk food, and how often they exercise.

Overall, teens report high exercise levels and moderate consumption of junk food. Overweight teens are no more likely than others to admit they abuse junk food, but they are a bit less likely to report being physically active.

Gender Gaps in Weight Perceptions

The good news is that, given the similarity in the Gallup and NHANES weight estimates, overweight teens Gallup interviewed seem to be fairly accurate in evaluating their own weight condition (the NHANES determination of being overweight is based on recorded height and weight, measured at mobile examination centers). The bad news is that, according to NHANES trends, the current percentage overweight (16%) is significantly higher than it was 10 years ago (11%), and is triple what it was in the late 1970s (5%).

Unlike U.S. adults, teens are as likely to say they are underweight (19%) as to say they are overweight (18%). (Gallup polling finds only 5% of adults saying they are underweight, while 42% say they are overweight.) The percentage of teens who believe they are underweight is more pronounced among males (13% say they are overweight vs. 21% underweight).

Health statistics show a much smaller percentage of teenagers being underweight (about 4%), and show no significant difference in this by gender. Given this, the Gallup data most likely reflect the desire of teenage boys to be larger and more muscular relative to sports, as well as conforming to social norms.

By contrast with male teens, more female teens believe they are overweight than underweight (21% vs. 16%). Females are therefore more likely than males to consider themselves overweight (21% vs. 13%).

As with boys, female teens' perceptions differ from what official health statistics have to say about their weight condition. The 2003 National Survey of Children's Health found that 12% of girls aged 10 to 17 were overweight, compared with 18% of boys. Thus, with 21% of teenage girls saying they are overweight, it appears they have an exaggerated sense of their true size.

Overall, 17% of teens say they are actively trying to lose weight. However, this includes only about half of overweight teens (48% of whom say they are trying to lose weight). Eleven percent of teens who feel their weight is about right are also trying to lose weight, as are 7% of those who say they are underweight.

The fact that one out of five teenage girls are trying to lose weight (21%) may sound alarms for those concerned about anorexia and other eating disorders among this population. It is especially troubling because this group includes some girls who tell Gallup they are already underweight.

Focus on Solving Obesity

Government and the medical community increasingly recognize obesity as a critical public health problem. The incidence of type 2 diabetes resulting from being overweight is nearing an epidemic among some populations.

When asked to name what they think is the most urgent health problem facing the country, 27% of teens surveyed by Gallup mentioned obesity, which is tied with cancer as the top health problem as perceived by teens.

Teens' perceptions on this issue contrast with those of adults. Only 9% of U.S. adults interviewed for Gallup's 2005 Health and Healthcare survey cited obesity as the nation's No. 1 health problem. Adults are most likely to cite healthcare costs and access to healthcare, issues less likely to be of concern to teens.

Banning Junk Food

As a result of the recent focus on obesity, public schools are coming under increasing pressure to forego snack machines, candy machines, and lucrative arrangements with soft-drink companies for the placement of soda machines on school grounds.

However, according to students' self-reports, vending machines pose a fairly minor nutritional hazard. The percentage of teens saying they buy various forms of junk food at school at least a few times a week is just 24% for chips and related snack foods, 19% for soda, and 16% for candy. The majority of students say they rarely or never buy these foods at school.

More generally, however, a majority of teens admit that their weekly diet includes either "a great deal" (12%) or "some" (62%) junk food. Only 26% say they eat hardly any or no junk food.

Teens themselves are generally dubious that banning the sale of soda and other junk food from schools will reduce teenagers' consumption of these products. Only 43% say this strategy will work, while 57% disagree.

In fact, the Gallup Youth Survey finds that underweight teens, not overweight teens, are the ones most likely to indulge in junk food. More than one in four underweight teens (27%) say they eat a great deal of junk food, compared with 14% of overweight teens and only 8% of teens who are the right weight.

Teens Claim to Be Active

A majority of teens (57%) claim to participate in vigorous sports or physical activity at least three days per week; 63% claim to participate in moderate sports or recreation that often.

Those who classify themselves as overweight are slightly less likely than others to report this activity level. Those who are underweight are no more likely than those who are about the right weight to be physically active.

Just 43% of overweight teens say they engage in vigorous sports activities three or more days per week. This compares with 60% of those who are about right or underweight.

Barely half (51%) of overweight teens say they engage in moderate sports activities three or more days per week, compared with 65% of those whose weight is about right and 70% of those who are underweight.

Survey Methods

These results are based on mail and Web surveys with a randomly selected national sample of 546 teenagers in The Gallup Panel of households, aged 13 to 17, conducted Dec. 5, 2005, to Jan. 16, 2006. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±4 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.